Cause of Death
by peaceofmindalchemist
Summary: When his best friend commits suicide, sixteen year old Roy Mustang is distraught, angry, and confused. But a new clue makes Roy wonder if Maes's death was really a suicide, and if he's even dead to begin with. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Kind of an introduction chapter, the next ones will be longer.**

**Special thanks to: Meso the Hanyu. Without her this story would have been impossible to post because it would have no name. She helped me to come up with the title "Cause of Death" and for that I am eternally greatful.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.**

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The two boys sat side by side on the top of the bleachers in their school gym.

They pretended to be watching and commenting about the basketball game going on below them, least their gym coach get suspicious, but really they were simply talking about absolutely nothing, like best friends do.

"So, you're getting pretty good at flame alchemy, right?" The first boy asked. He was taller than his friend, with dark, spiky, hair. He wore glasses over his catlike green eyes, and seemed to be pushing them up his nose every few minutes.

The second boy grinned and nodded. He had raven-colored hair that fell over his dark, onyx eyes. He was considered very handsome among the girls. "Mister Hawkeye is a great teacher," he said, speaking in his slow way that made women faint.

The green-eyed boy grinned. "Wow, Roy, maybe you really will make it as a State Alchemist, after all."

The onyx-eyed boy, Roy, smirked. "I'll do more than that, Maes," he said, "I plan to become Fuher."

"Oh?" Chuckled Maes softly.

There was a silence.

"Do you think," Maes asked suddenly, staring intently at the floor below them, "It would hurt if I fell from up here?"

Roy blinked, surprised at the random question.

"I'm sure it wouldn't feel too great," he said, wondering if he should be worried.

Maes smiled widely, pleased with his friends answer. Before he could say anything, though, the bell rang.

Roy grinned.

"C'mon, Maes. Let's blow this joint."

Maes paused for a second at the top of the bleachers, staring at the floor.

"Hurry up!" Came his friend's voice from the bottom.

With one last glance down, Maes followed after his impatient friend, lost deep in his own mind.

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**A/N: So what do you think? As I said before, this is kind of just an intro chapter, but I could use some feedback. So review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: That's right, I'm finally back in good ole' Alabama, meaning I can update my stories. So, here's the next chapter. Enjoy, and review!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own FMA. I only own this plot.**

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It was a typical Friday night, meaning Roy was sitting on his couch with his arm wrapped around some blonde beauty whose name he barely knew.

The phone rang and he, of course, ignored it completely.

It rang six more times before he figured whoever it was wasn't going to give up.

With an annoyed sigh, he stood up and kissed the girl on the top of her blonde head.

"I'll be back, my love," he said smoothly, using the same nickname he always did when he forgot his dates' names.

He sighed again and made his way to the phone.

_It's probably Maes calling to say he wants to come over and watch a movie or something. I _told _him I had a date!_

He picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

"What?" he said rudely.

"Is this the Mustang residence?" The voice was defiantly not Maes's, it was a deep unfamiliar voice, sounding as if it belonged to an older man.

"Who wants to know?" Roy asked suspiciously.

"Central Police Department. Is a Mr. Roy Mustang there?"

_Shit! What did I do?_ He thought about it for a moment, then changed his worries._ What did they _catch_ me doing?_

"Uh…this is him," Roy said, suddenly not his sarcastic, arrogant, cocky self.

"Don't worry," the voice on the other end of the phone sounded almost sympathetic.

_Oh,_ Roy thought, _so it's not really about me, then. This is probably about Dad._ Roy shuddered as he thought about the last time he'd talked to the police.

His father, standing over him with a beer bottle in one hand, the other clenched into a fist as he hit his son, over and over and over again.

_You're gonna rat me out to the police, then?_

He shuddered at the sound of his dad's voice in the back of his mind.

"This is about Maes Hughes," said the cop, pulling Roy back into the present.

He let out a deep sigh of relief.

Okay, so Maes got in trouble and needs me to bail him out of jail. Usually it's the other way around but…

"He's dead," the cop said softly.

Roy gripped the phone so tightly his fingers turned white and he lost all feeling in them.

"D-dead? How?"

"He committed suicide," the man said slowly, pronouncing each word carefully.

Roy's mind went back to the conversation he and Maes had had the day before.

_Do you think it would hurt if I fell from up here?_

"That's imp-impossible," Roy muttered, "Maes wouldn't do that."

The cop sighed.

"They found him in his old treehouse."

Roy remembered, back when him and Maes had just met, in the first grade, when they would sleep out in the old treehouse, and more recently, when they would sneak up there to smoke or drink beer.

"How did he do it?" Roy muttered, pretty sure he could already guess.

"He set the treehouse on fire."

Roy closed his eyes.

"Maybe," he whispered, "someone else did it. Maybe he didn't kill himself."

"We found a letter," the cop said, "In his room."

"A…letter?" Roy repeated slowly.

"It was addressed to you. That's why we called you."

Of course, Roy thought numbly, They wouldn't have called me, regardless of how close Maes and I were, had it not been for that letter.

"Would you like to know what it says?" Asked the man on the other end of the phone.

Roy nodded, but then remembered the man couldn't see him. "Yes," he said quietly, "I would."

The man began to read.

"'Roy, If you are reading this, it means I'm gone. I'm sorry I couldn't stick around to help you study for your State Alchemy exam. I wouldn't have been much help, but at least you woulda had company. Oh, well. I'm sure you'll be the best damn State Alchemist Amestris has ever seen, and the best Fuher as well. I'm sure stories of the greatest alchemist of all time will be spreading around Central like Wild Fire soon enough. Once again, I'm sorry.

-Your friend, Maes Hughes.'"

Roy felt numb all over. By now, he was gripping the phone receiver so tightly, he could no longer feel his arm.

"I-is that all?" He asked, wanting to get off the phone.

There was a long pause on the other line.

"For now," was all the man said, and the line went dead.

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**A/N: So there you have it, the first real chapter. Hope you enjoyed it, please remember to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So a new chapter. Woo! Enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, only this plot.**

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Roy walked in disbelief back to the living room.

He was almost surprised to find his date still sitting there, he had forgotten all about her. He didn't even feel guilty about it.

"Roy," she said, throwing her arms around him, "who was on the phone? You look upset. Is everything okay?"

He pushed her away, feeling annoyed.

Reaching into her pocket, he pulled out his wallet and handed her some money.

"What's this for?" She asked, sounding confused. Typical.

"That should be enough to pay for both the prostitution and your cab home," he said coldly.

The girl's bottom lip trembled, but still he didn't feel any sympathy or guilt.

"But…"

The girl was crying now, and annoying Roy more and more by the second.

"Just go home," He said, voice breaking slightly.

She sensed he was in no mood to argue and obediently left. He closed the door behind him and raced up to his room.

When he got there, he quickly started throwing things into his backpack, whatever he thought he would need.

Pants, shirts, underwear, the gloves Mr. Hawkeye had given him.

Once he was satisfied with his bag, he put on his back and dropped smoothly out his window, not wanting to risk the front door in case his dad was home. Once he was out, he ran.

At first, he wasn't even sure where he was running to. Usually he would take these sort of problems to Maes, but that was impossible for obvious reasons.

Soon, his feet just started to carry himself to a familiar house. He opened the door, not bothering to knock.

A girl stood in the living room, short blonde hair falling slightly over her reddish-brown eyes, which were wide with surprise.

"Mr. Mustang," she said, "We weren't expe-"

"-where's your father?" Roy interrupted her, panting.

"In the back room," she answered, "As always."

"Thanks, Riza." He offered her a faint smile, and she smiled back.

He rushed to the room.

Riza sat in the living room, her heart racing. Something was wrong. He never came bursting in like that.

Pretty soon, she heard raised voices from the back room.

"Why won't you tell me?" Roy's voice. He sounded very angry.

"I'm telling you, it's impossible. It's never been done," her father sounded calm, as usual.

"You're lying!"

"Why would I do that?"

The voices quieted down for a second, then the door slammed and Roy came storming out.

"Roy," she said quietly.

His heart thudded against his ribs. She had never called him 'Roy' before. He turned around.

"What?"

What," she bit her lower lip nervously, "What happened?"

"It's a long story," he muttered.

She patted the couch cushion next to her.

"I'm not going anywhere."

He walked slowly to the couch. "Maes is dead," he said quietly before sitting down.

Riza gasped quietly.

She'd only met Maes once, maybe twice, but he seemed like a nice boy.

"How?" she whispered.

"Suicide," he spat the word out like it was poison, causing her to flinch.

Roy nodded.

"He was dropping hints the day before," he whispered, "but I passed it off as nothing. Maybe if I had recognized it for what it was I could have-"

"-No," she interrupted quietly, "Don't say that."

He stood up.

"Maybe the story wasn't as long as it was hard," he muttered as he walked to the door.

"Why'd you come here?" She asked just as his hand gripped the doorknob.

"Information," he muttered, "I'm trying to gather as much information as I can about Human Transmutation."

"I don't know much about alchemy, but isn't that illegal?"

He nodded.

"It is. But its all there is left to do."

"Roy," she said as he walked out the door, "Don't do anything stupid."

His eyes softened and he nodded, and then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.

**A/N: Not my best chapter, I'll admit, but I didn't think it was that bad. I liked the beginning with the nameless date. Anyways, please review. **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So, here it is, chapter 4. The funeral at the beginning of course is based mostly off the funeral in the manga, but the part at the very end of the funeral is from a funeral that I went to once. So enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Please. If I owned FMA, it would be as crappy as my writing.**

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Three exhausting days and sleepless nights later, it was the day of Maes's funeral.

It was the hardest day of Roy's life.

Long after everyone else had left, he stood still in front of the freshly dug grave and the tombstone bearing his friend's name.

His fists were clinched at his sides, hands shaking uncontrollably.

"It's over, you know," someone whispered behind him, "You can go home."

He didn't need to turn around to know that Riza Hawkeye was standing behind him.

He looked up at the sky, a tear rolling down his cheek and dropping onto the grave at his feet.

"Oh, it's starting to rain," he said matter-of-factly, still staring at the clear blue sky.

"But it's not-" Riza started, but she was interrupted.

"-yes it is. This is the rain."

Riza swallowed, hard. She didn't want to see him like this, but she had to be there for him. "Come on, Roy," she whispered, "If we don't go now, we'll both catch colds."

With one last look at the grave, he nodded and followed after her.

Not a single news weather forecaster could explain the sudden downpour on what was supposed to be a sunny, bright, day.

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_6 Months Later_

This was it. This was the day. He had known since the day he had decided he would go through with this that it would happen today.

April 12. The day Maes would have turned 16.

Everything was ready. He had found the perfect spot, somewhere where he would not be seen. He had done all the research. Nothing could go wrong.

He traced the chalk along the pavement, drawing the circle slowly and carefully, just as it looked in the book. He carefully set his supplies in the middle. The makeup of the human body, along with a picture of his friend and a few of his most prized possessions.

It was perfect.

He smiled and put his hands on the circle, starting up the alchemical reaction. His smile widened as the familiar blue light surrounded him.

But things never stay perfect for long.

It was when the familiar blue light changed to angry red that he realized something was wrong.

He cried out, suddenly cursing his 'perfect' remote location. No one could see or hear him, just as he had planned. Never had he expected for his own plan to work against him like this.

Suddenly, the scenery around him changed and he was no longer sitting at his transmutation circle. Instead, everything around him was white, impossibly white.

"Welcome, foolish human," came a voice from somewhere behind him. He whirled around and saw a figure sitting in the whiteness. The figure itself was simply white, framed by black and gray shadows.

"W-who are you?" Roy stuttered fearfully.

The figure laughed.

"Who am I? I am everything. I am all that ever is, was, or will be. I am the Truth. Some might call me God."

"There's no such thing as god," Roy shot back, "Everything can be explained by science and science alone." (A/N: Remind you of someone?)

"You know," The Truth said, changing the subject, "This transmutation was a failure before it even started."

"What makes you say that?" Roy asked, suddenly interested.

"You can't resurrect the living," the figure laughed.

Before he could ask what the guy meant, Roy felt a presence behind him. He turned around and saw a huge gate that had not been there before.

"Wha-?"

"-enjoy, human," the figure laughed as Roy was grabbed by a million tiny black hand-like things and pulled into the gate.

Inside the gate, Roy saw snippets of millions of things that made no sense. People he knew, and some he didn't. There was his father, Mister Hawkeye, Riza, Maes, A short blonde boy, a man in a full suit of armor, a man in a military uniform smoking a cigarette.

And at the end of the tunnel, there was a figure surrounded completely by light, but Roy was sure he knew who it was.

"MAES!" He yelled as he reached out for his friend. But just as his fingertips were about to touch those of the outstreached hand, he was back in front of The Truth.

"I almost had it!" He said, voice full of excitement, "Show it to me just one more time!"

"That's all you get for your toll," The Truth said with a toothy grin.

"Toll?" Roy asked, wondering what he had paid.

Suddenly he felt the black hands again, running up his right leg. He looked down to find, to his horror, that his leg was disappearing. When he looked up, he saw it reappearing on The Truth. The same was being done to his right arm.

The Truth grinned again.

Roy screamed.

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**A/N: Oooh, another cliffie-ending! I know, Ed only lost one limb in the actual transmutation (Since technically, his arm was lost to save Al) but Al lost his body, not to mention Ed and Al had had more training and studying than Roy had. So in my brain, it makes sense. Please Review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Well, I added a bit of comedy in there, just because I thought the mood needed to be lightened up.**

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own FMA, but I do own this twisted plot. SO TAKE THAT, SOCIETY!**

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Roy didn't remember passing out, but somewhere along the line he must have because next thing he knew, he was waking up in the abandoned neighborhood where he'd done his transmutation.

His vision was blurry as he looked down at his now stumpy limbs.

"Damn it!" He yelled. And why not yell? No one could hear him, anyways. "This is all wrong! What the hell did he mean?!?"

A movement from the circle caught his eye. He turned hopefully to look…

…and screamed.

Whatever was over there, it certainly was not human.

It's grotesque body was missing parts, and the organs appeared to be on the outside. It turned to look at Roy, and he screamed again. The creature reached for Roy, its creator, but never quite lifted its hand up all the way. Its arm dropped, and the creature appeared to be dead.

Roy's breath slowed as he felt himself losing a tremendous amount of blood from his missing limbs. He knew that if he didn't stop the bleeding, he would die.

Using only his remaining hand and teeth, he tore his shirt in half. Half of the shirt he tied around his shoulder, where his arm ended. He tied it tight with his teeth and hand. He did the same for his thigh.

When he was done, he was exhausted. He lay on the ground, staring up at the clouds and trying not to look at the dead creature that was supposed to be his best friend.

His vision was spotted, and he knew he would lose consciousness again soon, and never be found.

_I'm going to die here,_ he though hopelessly, _They'll never even know what happened to me. They won't find me for weeks._

In his mind, he played over what they would do when they found his body.

_I'll be nothing but bones, then._

There was a rustling noise from the woods at his right. He tried to lift his head to look, but it felt like dead weight.

"O…ver here," He called out feebly, "He….lp."

Heavy, fast moving footsteps came over to him.

_They're running,_ he thought randomly.

"Mr. Mustang!" He knew that voice, didn't he? The blood loss was making it hard to remember things…

Two reddish-brown eyes stared down into his onyx ones and he caught a flash of brown hair.

_Riza._

He knew he was in good hands now.

He smiled weakly and closed his eyes, letting the darkness take him away.

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Roy lazily cracked one eye open. It was bright in the room where he was laying. He was about to close his eye again when he heard a voice.

"Did you sleep well?"

He turned his head to see a young girl with short blonde hair and reddish-brown eyes, glaring at him.

"Riza?"

"No, I'm the queen of France," she said, her voice dripping is sarcasm.

He smirked.

"Nice to meet you, your highness."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Glad you feel well enough to act like an idiot, since that's what got you here in the first place," she said angrily.

He cringed.

"Ummm….you're mad, aren't you?" He asked, knowing the answer but hoping he was wrong.

"What ever gave you that idea?"

"Well, you're just yelling at me, and giving me mean looks so I assumed…-"

"-_Of course I'm mad! _What did you promise me, Roy?"

There was that use of his first name again. She only did that when she was either really pissed or trying to cheer him up. At the moment, she was obviously the first.

"I don't remember," he lied.

"You promised me, _promised me_, damn you, that you wouldn't do anything stupid. And what did you do?"

"Something stupid?" He offered wearily.

She nodded furiously. "Not to mention you were nearly killed in the process. I can't believe you-" She broke off and stared at him, studying him as if seeing him for the first time. "What _did_ you do, exactly?"

Roy sighed.

"I did a human transmutation. On Maes."

Her eyes softened, just a tiny bit.

"Oh," she said quietly.

"I guess," He said bitterly, "I don't have to tell you how it turned out."

He glanced down at the places where his limbs once were.

"Damn it!" He screamed, "How am I supposed to keep my promise like this?"

"You already broke your promise, we just had this discussion. Bringing Maes back was something stupid."

"Not that!" He would have laughed, had the situation not been so dire. She was so cute and innocent. "My promise to Maes. I promised him I would become Fuher. How can I do this with these stumps?"

"There is," she said, voice shaking slightly, "Another choice."

He raised his eyebrows curiously.

"My cousin knows these automail engineers, in this little town called Risembool. She tells me they're the best at what they do."

His eyes lit up.

"Riza, that's an excellent idea! I'll get automail!"

"If you go," her voice was quiet again now, the anger replaced by fear and pity, "I'm going with you."

He was about to protest, but she interrupted him. "You can't go alone, not in your shape, and God knows your dad won't go with you. So please, Roy, let me come."

He smiled. Sometimes he forgot that she was only 14, two years younger than him. She acted so much older.

"So when do we leave?"

She smiled triumphantly.

"I've set you up an appointment for next week, wasn't sure when you'd wake up."

He chuckled.

"You planned this."

She shrugged.

"I just know you."

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**A/N: I guess that's a good place to end the chapter. Next chapter, to Risembool, where Roy, Riza, and just because he gets no love and Roy and Riza are both underage and broke, Riza's Dad head off to Risembool and meet Sarah Rockbell, her husband whose name is never mentioned but I will make up, His mother Pinako, and their daughter Winry. As well as Trisha, Hohenheim, Edward, and Alphonse Elric. Winry, Edward, and Alphonse will be very young though, I'll try to do the math and make the ages right. In the meantime, REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I did the math, and Edward, Alphonse, and Winry wouldn't even be **_**alive **_**when Roy was 16, but since it's AU anyways, I made Ed and Winry 4 and Al 3.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.**

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Roy was not happy. Since he was currently missing a leg, Riza had forced him to travel in a wheelchair. A wheelchair! He felt like a cripple! Okay, so he was a cripple, but he didn't want to feel like one!

And to top it all off, Mister Hawkeye, who was already angry at him for doing the transmutation in the first place, would be traveling with him and Riza to Risembool. He could feel his teacher glaring daggers in the back of his head now. Honestly, when he'd first talked to the man, he'd been sure Mister Hawkeye would kill him himself.

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_Flashback_

"_You did what?" Jonathan Hawkeye's* voice was full of carefully contained rage._

"_You heard me," Roy said calmly. For some reason, he got a real kick out of seeing people really pissed off, and his teacher was no exception.**_

_Mister Hawkeye's hands were clenched so tightly into fists, they shook at his side._

"_Even after I warned you not to, you still did it," his voice was shaking now, and Roy realized, too late, that his teacher was more than just really pissed off. "Why would you do that?"_

_Roy didn't know where to begin._

"_I know what you said," he snapped, voice a little more bitter than he had intended, "but I still had to try. Maes was my friend, Teacher, and that was enough of a reason to try to revive him."_

_His teacher scowled._

"_You're going to say you loved him, aren't you? That you couldn't go on without your friend?"_

_Roy nodded numbly._

_Mister Hawkeye laughed, a more frustrated than amused laugh._

"_Love is such a pointless emotion," he spat, "It leads only to pain and suffering, which always leads to fatal mistakes."_

_Roy glared at the man._

"_Of course you would say that. Typical, since you love no one but yourself."_

_He thought for sure his teacher would kill him after that comment, but instead he just stood up and said, "I'm going with you to Risembool," Before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him._

_End Flashback_

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Roy sighed and stared out the window. He could feel all the other passengers' eyes on his back, hear them whispering about him, but he pretended he didn't.

Riza sat just as silently beside him, glaring at those whispering and staring. Of course, a fourteen-year-old girl was not very scary, but most of them were embarrassed they'd been caught.

Mister Hawkeye, on the other hand, was glaring at _Roy_.

"We'll be arriving in Risembool in fifteen minutes," said the conductor over the intercom. Roy groaned.

"What?" Riza asked curiously, "There's only fifteen minutes left, that's not long at all."

Roy sighed. "It's fifteen minutes too long," he muttered mournfully.

"You'll survive," Riza chuckled.

"How do _you _know? I could die of boredom." He turned to face her, smirking.

She grinned and hit his arm playfully.

This 'argument' went on for the next fifteen minutes, until the train ride ended.

Roy impatiently waited to be wheeled off the train.

"Hurry up!" He called, tugging on Riza's sleeve, "I want to get out!"

Riza chuckled.

"You sound like a six-year-old," She muttered as she wheeled him toward the back of the train, where the handicap ramp was.

He grinned as they came off the train and into the station.

"Freedom at last!" He called happily, causing everyone to look at him, "So where do these Rockbells live?"

Riza bit her bottom lip. "Well…"

Roy groaned.

"You don't know, do you?"

She shrugged and turned to her father, only to find that he had gone.

"Shit," Roy muttered, "I didn't think he was that mad."

"He's just over there getting directions," Riza said, pointing to her father, who, ironicly enough, was pointing them out to a man with blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail. The two men approached Roy and Riza.

"Ah, hello," said the man with the ponytail, "You needed help getting to the Rockbells?"

"Not help," Roy muttered, "Just directions."

The man glanced at Roy's arm and leg. "No, you defiantly need help. It's a few miles from here, and you don't want to have to be pushed all that way. I'll give you a ride."

"Er, don't go out of your way," Roy said, glaring at his teacher who had obviously asked the man for a ride.

"It's not out of my way," the man insisted, "I live right next to them."

Roy sighed, defeated. "Okay, thanks," he muttered.

The man's car*** was big, big enough to fit Roy's wheelchair in the back. Roy and Riza sat in the back, and Mr. Hawkeye rode shotgun.

In no time, they arrived at a hilly countryside with a small group of houses. The man parked in front of a house with a sign nailed to the front that read "Rockbell Auto Mail"

"This is your stop," the man said, getting out to help with the wheelchair.

As Riza went to get out, Roy grabbed her hand. "Don't leave me in here alone," He said, trying to sound as pitiful as possible.

She sighed.

"Fine," she muttered, sitting back down.

He smiled triumphantly.

Mister Hawkeye opened his door, and took a step back. Roy shot him a confused look.

"Aren't you going to help me out…?"

The man smirked and shook his head.

"Surely if you think you're capable of human transmutation, you can get out of a car by yourself," he said with a chuckle.

Roy glared at his teacher.

"Of course I can," Roy growled, not ready to let Mister Hawkeye win.

Using his remaining arm, he struggled with his seatbelt.

"Damn it!" He screamed, slapping his seatbelt.

Riza moved forward, unbuckling him herself. She glared at her father, daring him to say something to her. He didn't. She helped him out of the car, letting him lean on her for support.

Remaining this way, they slowly made their way into the house. The man with the ponytail was already in there, laughing with a brown-haired woman****, a blonde man, and a white haired lady.

"Oh, here he is now," the man who had driven them said, pointing to Roy, "Pinako, Sarah, Thomas, this is…" He paused, looking embarrassed, "Er…I never did get your names."

"I'm Jonathan Hawkeye, this is my daughter Riza, and my student, Roy Mustang."

"Ah," said the man, "I'm Hohenheim Elric, by the way. These are the Rockbells; Sarah," he nodded toward the brown haired woman, "Thomas*****," the man, "Pinako," the older, white haired woman waved, "And…Hey, where'd Winry go?"

"I think she went of to play with Ed and Al," Sarah Rockbell said with a laugh, "Those three are inseparable these days."

Three small children suddenly came racing into the room.

"Winry," A small blonde boy was saying, "Come back here!"

A little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes stuck her tongue out at him.

"We're playing tag, stupid!" She yelled, "If I came back I'd lose!"

The three stopped in their tracks when they saw the three unfamiliar people in the living room.

"Who're they?" Asked the third child, a boy with dirty blonde hair and gray eyes.

Hohenheim smiled.

"Edward, Alphonse, Winry, I'd like you to meet Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and her father Jonathan Hawkeye."

The blonde boy glared at the empty sleeve and pants leg where Roy's limbs should have been.

"He's missing pieces!" The boy gasped suddenly.

Roy scowled and the adults laughed.

"Yes, Edward," Pinako said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, "He's here to have automail installed."

Edward crinkled his nose.

"But that's for _old people_," he argued.

"Edward," Hohenheim said, "Don't be rude. Roy lost his limbs…" he stopped, "Actually, you never did tell me how you lost your limbs."

His words hung in the air, and not a soul dared to answer.

"We should get you fitted for automail," Thomas Rockbell broke the silence, deciding that Roy was not yet ready to talk about it.

"Yeah," Roy muttered, his eyes never leaving Hohenheim.

He could tell, just by the man's eyes, that he knew what had happened.

And yet, for some reason, he said nothing. He only watched as Roy was wheeled off into the back room to be fitted.

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***Had to make up a name, and I thought Jonathan sounded cool. :D**

**** Explains his attitude toward Ed later, right?**

***** It's AU, so Hohenheim can have a car, right?**

****** In the anime, it showed her once and she had brown hair.**

******* Had to make up another name. Thomas Rockbell sounded good.**

**Hope you liked it, don't forget to review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Woo, a new chapter! Enjoy reading it!**

**Disclaimer: Of course I don't own FMA. BUT! I do own this deranged, twisted plot.**

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Later that night, after dinner, Hohenheim Elric pulled his wife gently aside as their children got ready for bed.

"Trisha," he said softly, "About that Mustang boy-"

She shook her head. "I don't have time to hear about this right now, Hohenheim," She interrupted, "I have to get the boys in the tub. You know Alphonse will start crying if I'm not in there, and Edward won't even touch the soap unless I make him."

"They'll be fine, Trisha," he said, glancing toward the bathroom, "This'll only take a moment. I think that boy…his wounds…I think he got them by disrupting the laws of Equivalent Exchange. The boy must have committed a taboo… from the looks of it, a Human Transmutation."

Trisha raised an eyebrow, obviously confused. "Could you repeat that? In English this time?"

He sighed. "That kid tried to bring a human to life using Alchemy."

Trisha looked toward the front door, as if the boy could hear them from the next house over. "Is…is that even possible?"

Hohenheim scowled and shook his head. "No, which is why he lost his limbs. Not to mention Human Transmutation is illegal…"

Trisha bit her lower lip nervously.

"Are you going to turn him in?" She whispered quietly, unable to get the boy's face out of her mind.

_That could be my son in ten years…confused, sad, upset….hurting._

Hohenheim paused for a moment before shaking his head slowly and unsurely. "I think he's suffered enough for his crime," he muttered.

_0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0_

Roy swallowed deeply. It had been a week since he had arrived in Risembool, and his automail was ready. Today was the day he would have it attached.

He had never been so nervous in his life.

He sat on the operating table, tapping his fingers against it.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

The noise was so familiar by now, it was almost soothing.

_Tap. Tap. Tap_.

"Okay, Mr. Mustang, we're getting ready to attach the automail docks to your limbs." It was Pinako speaking. Somehow, Roy found it amusing how someone so much older than him had called him 'Mr.' Mustang. He chuckled uncomfortably.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

"This is going to hurt a little, Roy, so prepare yourself," Said Sarah in a gentle, quiet voice.

_Tap. Tap. Tap. _

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly as pain shot through the entire right side of his body.

_Hurt a little my ass, that hurt a lot!_

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

The tapping grew more frantic now as he tried to block out the pain.

"This is going to hurt a whole lot," Thomas said, "We're attaching the automail wires to your nerves now."

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

He noticed Thomas, unlike Sarah, hadn't told him to prepare himself.

He saw now, as the wires were attached to each and every nerve in his right limbs, why.

There was no preparing for this kind of pain.

_TAP! TAP! TAP!_

Roy screamed.

It hurt, bad.

There was no describing this pain, but it was worse than when he lost his limbs in the first place.

For a moment, Roy thought he was going to die. He almost hoped he would.

"Roy," Pinako's voice sounded distant, "Roy, wake up, it's over."

He groaned and opened his eyes lazily.

He was no longer on the cold, metal operating table but instead on a warm, comfy couch.

He blinked his eyes and groaned.

"How do you feel?" Pinako asked, sounding concerned.

Roy sat up.

"Like I just got hit by a truck."

Pinako shrugged.

"Better than expected."

Roy smirked and inspected his new limbs.

"How long until I'm able to stand?" He asked, glancing up at the doctors.

Sarah frowned.

"Usually about three years," she said with a shrug.

Roy's mouth dropped open.

"Three…three years?!?" He exploded, "No way!! I don't have time to lie around on a couch for _three years!_"

Sarah, Thomas, and Pinako flinched at his sudden outburst.

Riza and Jonathan, however, having just walked into the room, were quite used to it.

"Calm down, Roy," Jonathan said in a bored voice, "I'm sure you don't have to stay_ here_ for three years."

"Oh," Thomas said, speaking up suddenly, "Of course not. He'll be well enough to go home in a matter of months, but he won't be able to move around much."

Roy glanced up at Riza, who shrugged helplessly at him.

He would rather be in God-forsaken Risembool than at his house in Central. His father was probably too drunk to notice that he was gone yet, but when he got home he knew he'd get about a weeks worth of beatings. He shivered at the thought.

"Can he stay here though?" Riza said shyly, "I mean, if he wants to?"

All three doctors looked from the girl to the boy in utter confusion.

"I…uh…guess so…" Thomas said quietly.

Roy sighed, relieved.

"You need your rest," Pinako said, glaring at Roy, "Everyone out!"

Everyone left.

Almost everyone.

Riza walked over to the couch and sat at the end, near Roy's feet.

"Riza," Roy muttered without looking up at her, "I'm not lying around on a couch for three years."

The girl chuckled softly.

"How did I know you were going to say that?"

He shrugged.

"Because it's true. One year. Tops," He held up one finger stubbornly.

Riza rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him.

"Get some sleep. You'll need it."

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**A/N: You are now under my brain control, meaning YOU MUST REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Time skip. Not a huge one, just six months, because I'm too lazy to write exactly what he did during those months. An entire chapter of lying on a couch wouldn't be that interesting anyways, would it? Of course not. It would be boring! So here is the latest (As in newest and also as in its very late. I apologize.) chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Puh-leeze! If I owned FMA the manga chapters would STOP ENDING IN CLIFFHANGERS!**

* * *

As the months went by, Roy slowly grew used to the automail. By the time six months had passed, he was able to sit up, clench his fist, and almost pick things up with his new hand. He also swore he was close to standing, but no one would let him prove it.

Occasionally, the three children would come in and gape at him, and he tried to be friendly. Of course, this was not easy. The girl, Winry, was afraid of him and cried every time he tried to talk to her, the youngest boy, Alphonse, got upset that Roy couldn't play tag with him, and the oldest boy, Edward, was just plain rude.

"Mr. Roy?" Edward asked one day, sitting cross-legged in front of the couch.

Roy sighed deeply_. This kid and his questions. Does he want to know everything or something?_

"Yes, Edward?" He asked, boredly.

"How did you lose all your pieces?"

Roy looked away quickly. "I had a bad accident."

The boy crinkled his nose. "That's a lie, isn't it, Mr. Roy? My mom said lying is bad."

Roy groaned. He didn't know how many times he'd been told by these children all the different things their 'mommies' told them, but he was quite tired of being told what he was doing wrong by kids more than ten years younger than him.

"Yeah. It was a lie," he said quietly.

"Why?" Came another one of the boy's endless questions, "Why don't you tell me the truth?"

"Because," Roy muttered, suddenly pretending to be fascinated with the button on the couch cushion, "You're too young to understand."

"I'm always too young," Edward said, raising his voice slightly, "And I'm tired of it!"

And with that, he stormed off toward the door, just as four-year-olds do when they get angry. Although Roy regretted making him mad, he was relieved that the kid was gone.

"He's right you know," a tired voice said from the door, "Lying is wrong."

Roy looked up from his precious button to see Hohenheim standing in the front doorway, watching his son run to his house across the field.

"I came here to see how you're doing," the man said, turning to face Roy.

Roy shrugged. "More or less the same, I guess."

"So, who did you try to revive?"

Roy stiffened.

_How does he know? Or is it just a guess? Either way I can't let him know the truth._

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said calmly, voice trembling a bit at the end.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning to turn you in, I'm just curious. Did you…did you see the gate?" Hohenheim sounded small, almost scared. Roy decided it was safe to tell him the truth.

"I did," he muttered quietly, "Have you seen it?"

The man stiffened and nodded.

"Then you must have tried it too," Roy said, sitting up. "Right?"

Hohenheim shook his head.

"My country was destroyed as a result of a Philosopher's stone being made. I managed to escape with my life, but everyone I had known before were all dead." The man swallowed and looked back up at Roy. "I've told you my story. Now tell me yours."

And so he did. From the very beginning, starting with that day in the school gym. He left out some of the details concerning his father, but other than that he told Hohenheim everything. It felt good, he had to admit. Finally telling someone what had been bottled up inside of him for weeks felt great.

By the time he was finished, he could feel the wet tears falling down his cheeks and felt embarrassed to break down like this in front of a complete stranger, but Hohenheim didn't seem to mind. He stared at Roy, inspecting him.

"I understand," he muttered quietly, "In such a situation, many people would have done the same thing, especially at your age."

Roy let out a relieved sigh, glad that he wasn't going to be turned in to the military.

"However," Hohenheim continued, "What you did was still wrong. Although," he looked Roy over, eyes stopping at his missing limbs, "I think you know that now. I won't lecture you. But I will warn you, the next time you commit an alchemical taboo, you won't come away as well as you did this time. Consider the laws."

And with that, the man got up and left Roy there to decode all that had happened, wondering vaguely if some of it had even happened at all.

* * *

A few weeks after his conversation with Hohenheim, Roy finally convinced the Rockbells to allow him to stand, and after a bit more pleading, was even able to walk a few steps without collapsing.

He, for some odd reason, was convinced this meant he was completely cured and would leave for Central in a few days.

Needless to say, he was in a sour mood when he was told this was not the case.

"I don't see why I can't go home!" He fumed, crossing his arms on his chest and resorting to the 'angry toddler' strategy.

"Because you can barely walk!" Yelled Sarah, who had quite a temper. Roy had been hit over the head with a wrench once or twice for complaining.*

Roy "Hmph"ed, thus ending the conversation.

And that was when Ed walked in.

"What's wrong with you?" Ed asked rudely, looking up at the older boy.

"What's it matter to you, pipsqueak?"

Edward swung his little 4-year-old fists in the air and screamed "WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO TINY YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE HIM WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS, EVEN IF IT WAS SO HIGH CLASS YOU COULD SETA FLEE ON FIRE?!?!?!"

Roy blinked.

"Um….what?"

But Edward didn't hear Roy; he'd already stormed out of the room.

Roy chuckled and then sighed, glancing down at his leg.

Scowling, he stood up, grabbing the chair to help him balance. He quietly looked toward the kitchen, where everyone else was laughing and joking and then to the chair, where Riza slept. When he was sure no one was watching him, he limped victoriously out the door and into the cold, crisp night.

* * *

***Well it is Winry's mom…**

**A/N: I know, I just expressed my complete hate for cliffhangers earlier but what can I say? I had to. So I just watched a new anime, and finished it. Darker than Black. Anyone else seen it? If so, I would love to discuss it with you, as it was amazing. If not, watch it! Enough of my rambling, I'm sure you all want to get on with your lives. Until next time!**


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